Agenbag, Fritz increase women presence after being added to umpiring/referee panel

Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Tuesday (August 27) made an exciting announcement regarding the appointments of Lauren Agenbag to the reserve list umpires panel and Shandre Fritz to the match referees panel for the 2019-20 season. They thus reiterated their commitment to gender equality at all levels and areas in the game.



Fritz, a former international, played 59 ODIs and 26 T20Is for South Africa over the course of an 11-year international career. She was one of the country’s premier allrounders, even captaining the side back in 2007 before a back injury kept her out of the game for a couple of years.



She holds the record for the highest individual score in T20Is by a South African— an unbeaten 116 against Netherlands in 2010. It was also the first (and only) century by a South African woman in T20Is, and the second overall.



At only 22, Agenbag became the first South African woman to umpire in a T20I in February this year. She made her debut in a match between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Newlands— possibly the youngest umpire to stand in an international since George Coulthard in 1878-79.



She held her own in the match, earning praise from Dane van Niekerk, the South African skipper, for her calm demeanor and confidence.



“Congratulations to all our umpires on their deserved appointments for the approaching season and particularly to Lauren and Shandre,” commented Corrie van Zyl, CSA Acting Director of Cricket.



“Lauren has already umpired at Women’s Senior International level in T20 matches and we have identified her as one of the exciting prospects to come through our Talent Identification Programme (TAP).”



“Shandre’s cricket CV speaks for itself. She represented the Proteas in 85 white ball international matches between 2003 and 2014, captaining the country on several occasions. In addition, she became the first South African to score a century in international T20 cricket and was honoured as South African Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2012,” he added.



The first-class panel, formerly called the franchise panel, and the remainder of the reserve list umpires panel remain unchanged. Senior umpires, Marais Erasmus (ICC Elite Panel), Shaun George (ICC Reserve Test/ODI Panel) and Adrian Holdstock, Bongani Jele and Allahudien Paleker (ICC International Panel), serve on the various ICC Panels.



“Umpires are central to the game of cricket and we are fortunate to have an extremely competent group of match officials,” added van Zyl. “We will continue to create opportunities for our umpires to develop through our exchange programmes with Australia, India and New Zealand.”